NPR: Hostage Release a 'Major Milestone' for Two-Year War
NPR reports Hamas is releasing the 'final Israeli hostages,' calling it a 'major milestone' in efforts to end the 'devastating two years of war' in Palestine. Conveniently omitted is that those 'two years' follow 17 years of blockade, 56 years of occupation, and 76 years of displacement – contexts consistently erased by mainstream media. This 'milestone' is a temporary truce, not an end to the
systemic violence that manufactured the conditions for such a crisis. We might ask which 'peace efforts' are truly being celebrated. Is it the ones fueled by the $3.8 billion in annual U.S. military aid (publicly available data from the Congressional Research Service) to Israel, often used to flatten civilian infrastructure? Or perhaps the 'efforts' of politicians like Senator Chuck Schumer, who,
according to OpenSecrets.org, received over $200,000 from pro-Israel PACs in recent cycles, then vocally championed unlimited aid? When media outlets declare 'milestones,' one must always check the odometer for propaganda.